BALLOON AND KITE PHOTOGRAPHY : AN HISTORICAL REVIEW 
  
By A. Georgopoulos, 
University College London 
ABSTRACT 
A thorough historical review of low altitude photography experiments, using 
balloons and kites as camera platforms, is presented. The most important efforts 
are described and assessed for their results and significance in terms of their 
photogrammetric applicability. 
1.” Introduction 
  
Soon after the advent of photography in 1839, the wish to record aerial views 
became increasingly apparent. Many efforts were reported with different degrees 
of success. Later, however, the importance of aerial photography in topographic 
applications was realised and the efforts to obtain useful imagery became more 
Systematic. 
Balloons of various shapes, sizes and kinds were the most serious form of 
aviation until the appearance of the aeroplane, early in the 20th century. It 
was, however, from the principles of kite flying that the aeroplane design was 
developed. Therefore, the usefulness of both forms of aviation in aerial photo- 
graphy was and still is greatly acknowledged. In Table 1 the most important steps 
in balloon and kite flying may be followed. 
2. Review of balloon photography 
The knowledge that photographs taken from a balloon must be applicable for 
topographical purposes seems to have first occurred to Andraud in 1855 (Gruber, 
1932), Felix Tournachon (also known as Nadar), however, is reputed to have 
photographed part of Paris from a balloon, using the daguerrotype process in 
1858 (Association of Royal Air Force Photography Officers (ARAFPO), 1977). In 
the following years many pioneers experimented with balloon photography, including 
Aimé Laussedat, who had been investigating the usefulness of photography in 
topographic mapping since 1849 (Slama, 1980). The first really successful 
photograph is reputed to have been taken by two Americans, S.A.King and J.W.Black, 
in 1860. Also, extensive use of balloon photography as military reconnaissance 
tool is reported during the American Civil War, 1861-1865 (ARAFPO, 19TT). In 
1867, at the Paris Exposition, Laussedat exhibited a plan of Paris, based on 
balloon photography (Thompson, 1966a). One year later, Nadar produced some 
spectacular photographs of Paris taken from a balloon held captive at 500 m 
(ARAFPO, 1977). In 1877, W.B.Woodbury patented an automatic system for balloon 
photography (Gruber, 1932; Thompson, 1966a). A camera, intended to hang from an 
unmanned tethered balloon, was remotely operated using electric current for 
winding on the film and triggering the shutter. A similar device operated with a 
clockwork mechanism was patented by J.Fairman (Thompson, 19668). In 1893,C.B.Adams 
published a method of graphical aerial triangulation, using overlapping balloon 
photography (Slama, 1980). 
In the years that followed, balloon photography was primarily used for 
military reconnaissance (ARAFPO, 1977), for cloud photography and meteorological 
observations in general (Bacon, 1900; Bassus, 1900a) and, of course, for document- 
ation (Spencer, 1900 and 1901). It was with S.Finsterwalder that balloon 
photography began to be exploited for measurement. He devised a semigraphical 
method to perform what today is known as photogrammetric resection (Finsterwalder, 
1899). This he achieved by using the images of plumb lines on the photograph. 
These 50 m long plumb lines were hung from the equator of the balloon envelope 
in such way that at least two would be imaged on each photograph. The most 
important photogrammetric use of the photography obtained at the time was the 
completion or revision of existing plans (Baschin, 1911; Bassus, 1900a). Simple 
geometric relations, mainly cross ratios, were used for that purpose; considerations 
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